Can you really call God "good?"

I recently read in the newspaper a short article about an incident in Pakistan in which 16 children between the ages of 6 and 12 and a teacher were burned to death when the minibus in which they were riding burst into flames. It seems that a leaking gas tank and an electrical short circuit caused the disaster.

Such news is an almost daily occurrence and seems to occur most frequently in the poorest countries. And God is said to love the poor.

How could God, whom Christians say is all-loving, allow these catastrophes? How could he/she design a world that is so unfair? How could he/she allow those he/she supposedly loves to undergo such anguish? How could a "perfect" God be the maker of such an imperfect world?

These are among the most repeated questions about God and among the top reasons people give for not believing in God and religion.

Bad things, good people
Answers don't come easily, and are not altogether satisfying, but the best I've read on the subject is the 1981 book by Rabbi Harold Kushner, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." I recommend it.

Kushner uses the book of Job from the Hebrew Bible (also called "the Old Testament") to discuss the issue, which was obviously already a problem for believers and non-believers at the time the book was written between the 6th and 4th century BC. Job is a good man (though his friends doubt it) who is blessed by God, then beset by tragedy upon tragedy. God talks a lot in this book, basically saying that he (Like other cultures of its time, the Hebrews couldn't imagine a "she" God.) isn't responsible for the bad things that happen to people but that he can be a great comfort when they occur.

So, the author(s) of the Book of Job don't let God take the rap, and in his book, Kushner appeals to the imagination: what would human life be like if God mini-managed everything? In this respect, parents may be able to relate. What are children's lives like when parents are overbearing and controlling? If God were a mini-manager, would our lives be what we now refer to as "human?" Wouldn't we be automatons with predictable and controlled lives?

Problem of design?
Many believe no God with the credentials Christians and other believers have given him could have designed such a flawed universe. Others see the universe as incredibly beautiful and perfect. Whatever; God apparently wants us to struggle, with faith, hardship, tragedy, moral dilemmas, the good, the bad and the ugly. Life is not fair or just. What God offers, it seems, is the promise to be with us and of vague things to come.

To me, the “problem of evil,” as the question of why bad things happen to good people is known, does not disprove the existence of God. If we blame him/her for the bad things that happen, don’t we have to credit him/her for the good? We simply have to accept things as they are and take the bad with the good.

Although I understand that I’m basing this on my own experience, which has been full of good things, I happen to believe that there are many more good happenings than bad, and more reasons for belief than unbelief. I hope to explore some of these reasons in blogs to come.

One of my favorite stories from the gospels is the on in which a man asks Jesus to cure his son of what today we may call epilepsy. Jesus tells the man he needs to have faith. The man answers, “I believe; help my unbelief.”

This blog is about faith in the face of doubt, and the "problem of evil" is among the great challenges to faith. But would a faith without such challenges be worth having? Would it even be faith? I believe the sincere search for God is worth the effort, despite the bad things that happen to good people.

Please pass on the address of this bog to your family and friends. Thanks.

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